Hey Squeenix, how about giving us a few more screenshots to show off those six hard years of work!

The Wii version Dragon Quest X won't be released until some time next year. By then, the game will have been in development for close to seven years.

This is according to former Square Enix employee Takehko Hoashi. At his Twitter today, Hoashi wrote that the game has already been in development for six years. He wonders if Square Enix will actually release it fiscal term given the reaction the recent announcement has gotten.

According to his entry at the GameStaff Wiki, Hoashi has a long history in the game industry. He previously worked at as producer on a number of Banpresto games, before moving to then Square, where he worked on games like Front Mission Alternative, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy The Spirits Within. His most recent work at Square Enix included Final Fantasy XIV and The 3rd Birthday. He left the company in 2010.

Six years actually isn't too incomprehensible for the DQ franchise, whose main numbered games are known for lengthy development times. DQVIII was released on PS2 in November 2004, and Dragon Quest IX on DS nearly five years later in July 2009.

If Hoashi's statement is true, it would mean that development on DQX kicked off not too long after DQVIII and ran parallel with DQIX. Different from those two titles, which were developed externally at Level-5, DQX is being developed internally at Square Enix, so it's not too hard to imagine parallel development lines.